Perseverance Rover: Know the key highlight of NASA's Perseverance Rover which landed on Mars

The Perseverance Rover launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) landed successfully on Mars’s Jezero Crater on the night of 18th February 2021 after sustaining through the blazing seven-minute plunge across the Martian atmosphere, after almost seven of its take-off. After the Sojourner, twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity and Curiosity to touch the surface of Mars, the Perseverance rover has become NASA’s fifth rover to do so.

Perseverance Rover:

The Perseverance is said to now spend upcoming years searching for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars in a historic mission. It is said to be the first mission that will bring back rock samples from Mars to Earth and pave the way for further such manned missions. 

The launch for Perseverance Rover happened quite well on schedule with weather conditions all turning favourable. However, the Perseverance Mars Rover was initially supposed to be launched earlier in February, but the delay happened due to technical issues. 

The Perseverance Rover is a six-wheeled robot that is tasked to deploy the first-ever interplanetary helicopter- “Ingenuity” and test out equipment for future manned mission and search for traces of past Martian life. 

Some key highlights of the Perseverance Rover launch: 

• The Perseverance Rover Mars 2020 was launched loaded with Atlas V-541 rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 30th July at the first launch opportunity at 7:50 AM EDT.
• One of the largest rockets available for an interplanetary flight, the Atlas V is alike to the rocket that launched the InSight and the Curiosity rover to Mars. Boeing-Lockheed Joint Venture United Launch Alliance has supplied the launch vehicle.
• With a unique launch opportunity every five minutes, the launch window extends for a range of approximately two hours.  

Some Key highlights of the Ingenuity Helicopter: 

The Perseverance Rover Mars 2020 will fetch along with it a self-governing mini-helicopter called Ingenuity weighing 1.8 kg. For a take-off on a 7-month voyage to Mars, the first-ever Interplanetary helicopter, Ingenuity was launched on 18th February 2021.

The main objective behind sending Perseverance Rover to Mars:

• The main objective behind sending Perseverance Rover to Mars is to search for signs of ancient microbial life and carefully collect the selected rock and regoliths (broken dust and rock) sample for its return back to Earth. 
• The rover is also expected to signalise Mars’ geology and climate and lead a way for human research on Mars. 
• The rover is also travelling along with a technological experiment which is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which aims the first powered and controlled flight on another planet. 

The US President Joe Biden along with Vice-President Kamala Harris congratulated NASA by tweeting about the hard work done by NASA and its partners for their prolific success in sending the Perseverance Rover to Mars.